Since I just published a book centered around JPEG creation, this is a good time to remind people of just how important JPEGs and their settings are. I'll use Nikon cameras as an example here, but similar things apply to virtually all the cameras you might use.
- JPEGs are the default. Let's say that you reset your camera somehow (via firmware update, via actually using Reset all settings, because of a bug that triggers a camera reset, or by accidentally hitting the two green buttons simultaneously, Nikon's default, as with all camera makers, is to create a JPEG file. If you take your camera out of the bag and don't remember or catch that it's been reset, you're going to create JPEG files. How many depends upon how much you're paying attention. But if you follow my advice, you're always paying attention, because:
- Exposure tools are based upon JPEG settings. Even if your camera is set to take raw images, any exposure tool you bring up is getting its data from the JPEG flow. That includes the histograms, highlights displays, and even zebra stripes. Get white balance wrong or have automatic settings in Picture Controls (or the wrong Picture Control and/or parameters), and the exposure tools will lie to you. I've seen people saturate channels this way, and I've seen them severely underexpose, resulting in more image noise than they should have gotten.
- JPEGs are what you see on the camera's displays. Nikon these days has multiple JPEGs embedded in your raw files. Some are used for thumbnails, some are for particular camera display functions, but there's also a full-sized JPEG basic one there, too. If you're looking at an image on your camera using one of the camera's displays (EVF, Rear LCD, even HDMI connection), you're not looking at raw data, you're looking at a JPEG created with whatever settings were in place when you took the image.
- Pre-release capture can only create a JPEG. Actually, that's not the only function that does, Multiple exposure and HDR (overlay) do, too. When photographing sports and wildlife, I've watched photographers go from taking regular images to deciding to use Pre-release capture to capture a fast action sequence, but then never pay any attention to what their JPEG settings might be as they do. Nothing like throwing away 90% of the data and getting that wrong, it'll ruin your day sometimes.
- Pushing to SnapBridge or NX MobileAir is usually about JPEGs. At the default of 2mp images, those aren't raw files that SnapBridge is receiving on your mobile device. Generally the point of using the move-off-the-camera wireless functions is to get images for social media use quickly, and smaller JPEGs do that faster than anything else you can create. That's why Nikon put those defaults in place: they assumed that you wanted really fast transfers. Why would you want your social media post for an image look worse than your eventual wall-sized print?
- JPEGs are understood by everything. Pretty much everything that can display an image understands JPEG files. JPEG is still around because it's become the lowest-common denominator for images. So much so that you don't even have to provide a Color Profile along with the image data; all those programs showing you a JPEG will just assume sRGB and a universal gamma, which is the way your camera created the JPEG in the first place.
- JPEGs can be incredibly small, yet still present an eye-catching result. The 45mp cameras can produce files with all those pixels in as little as 3MB of file space. That means you could fit almost 11,000 of those images on a 32GB card. I could put my entire catalog of A images easily on such a card using JPEG. And if I got all the settings right, those images would still be impressive to those I share them with.
Photographers wanted built-in automatic exposure meters in their camera because it avoided them having to go all Ansel on the problem of what aperture and shutter speed to use. Then they wanted autofocus because it avoided them having to figure out where the focus should actually be or rotating a dial to keep up with subjects. In digital everyone wanted automatic white balance because they had no idea what a Kelvin or MIRED was, let alone what to do about it. After Lightroom appeared everyone apparently decided that it was safer to take raw images, because they could "always fix it in post." If you get the impression from that we photographers have been getting lazier, you're correct.
I understand why, too. I've cataloged easily well over 600 decisions that you make (or assume, or the camera makes) that are necessary to contemplate to create great images. Images that are yours, and stand out from those of others. You don't want to face all those decisions, sure, it's daunting to say the least.
However, as I point out in my latest book, Mastering Nikon JPEGs, it's really just three things you need to think about to get JPEGs right: tonality, color, and style. Two of those may not vary in any photographic situation you're in, and maybe even all three don't vary at times. Thus, I'd argue that it pays to put some attention on how your camera is dealing with JPEGs, no matter what the situation you're in, what you think the time constraints are, and even if you're taking raw photos. Mastering JPEGs with your camera is a big win towards becoming a better photographer, and it's not as big a problem to make those decisions as you might think. You do, however, need to know what the primary three things to control are, and what your options are for each. Heck, if you even master one of the three things, you're probably already creating better JPEG images.
Ignore and avoid JPEGs at your own peril. Take the time to embrace what they do and maximize that potential.
This article is also now archived in Learn > Taking Photos Techniques.
